Pastilles

Pastilles is a giant memo pad.

Pastilles is a box of mints.

Pastilles is an ode to Black interior life.

Pastilles is a zine designed to be taken apart.

Pastilles is a collection of 23 risograph prints inspired by relief printing and cut paper silhouettes. Each page is a photograph of mine turned into an inkblot of the skeleton of the image. These images are reduced down to their simplest form; their highlights and shadows. This presentation allows you to experience the more abstract elements of the image and the form.

The repeated presence of my parents and grandparents grounds this book, just as their presence has grounded me. This book is dedicated to them.

This zine is intended as a take-home art gallery. It is bound on the top edge by a vertical strip of glue, similar to a memo pad, allowing for each print to be peeled off and displayed however you see fit. The accessibility of art is a priority of mine. Having a collection of art in your home – books lining your shelves, and prints on your walls instead of in museums – democratizes art. This project plays with the conventional presentation of photographs, breaking down elitist codes of perfection. Each scene is printed on gray paper instead of white, and each copy is full of the imperfections that come with the printing and binding process. Using a printing technique that is inherently inconsistent decenters an ideal of perfection in art that is centered in white supremacy.

23 Pages. 11in x 17in.

Printed and Bound by Didier Akinlabi Osias.